Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-02-04
AGRICULTURAL NOTES
A Column Devoted to the Interests Of Farmers
and stockmen.


Ellen, Cal, this year, owing to the
lack of cooperage.
A MERGED (Cal) farmer has sold
$1100 worth of watermelons from an
eight-acre patch this season.
Fresno (Cal) farmers will market
l 800, 900 sacks of wheat and l, 40O, 900
gallons Of wine this season.
Nevada farmers are shipping pota-
toes by the trainload to the San Fran
cisco and Sacramento markets.
Potatoes in the coast districts, says
the Santa Rosa Democrat, are yielding
at the rate of eight tons to the acre.
The decayed branches of old trees
should be promptly removed. Their
unsightliness is the least of their evils.
The United States has 100000
miles of fence, which cost the farmers
and stockmen about $1,000 OOO 900,
and have to be renewed every fifteen
years.
Potatoes are so abundant in some
parts of England that they sell for
$40 ton, or less than half cent per
pound.
1t is rule always to pillow hillside
land crossways, never straight up and
down, even when fiat enough for so
doing, as such lands frequently wash
from heavy rains. The best crops to
grow on gravelly hillsides are grapes.
There is large field open for those
who will make a specially of flax. 1t
is quick growing crop, is as easily
grown as wheat, and improved ma
chinery has made it more easily fitted
for market. 1t gives a profit in both
straw and feed.
One OF the first requirements in
successful bean culture is to have the
lands as free as possible from weeds.
Foul land is the cause of more failures
in raising this crop than any fault of
the soil or climate. When our farm
ers get into more careful and thorough
ways of farming, and fewer weeds are
grown, these special crops will be more
successful
One of the best and cheapest de-
vices for blowing to prevent barking
trees in orchards is short whiffletree,
with the hooks for the traces on the
back, and so fixed that the traces will
have to be passed over the end. Thus
when the whiffletree rubs against a
tree the latter is protected by the
leather. There was once patent on
this device, butt has long since expired
Lancaster county, Pa, is the banner
county of the United States in the
value of its agricultural products
which are set down at over S., S00,000
Monroe county, N. Y, in which is
situated the city of Rochester, is the
second in rank. There are thirty-three
counties whose annual products ex
coed 100000. of which fourteen are
in New York, seven in Pennsylvania
six in Illinois, two in California, two
in Massachusetts and one each il
Michigan and Connecticut.
When corn has thoroughly driet
out the cob consists principally o
, woody fiber and has little feedin}
, value. 1t may, however, pay to grinC
, it with corn, so as to give more bull
to the latter. Pure cornmeal is yer,
: concentrated food and stock is easily
cloyed on it. But when corn ant
cobs are green the latter have a con
/ siderable feeding value. Cows ar
{ especially fond of soft corn in the cal
and, as they chew their food twice
feeding it thus to them is not so waste
full practice as it might seem.
|, A farmer in New York states tina
9 about fifteen years ago he transplante
o huckleberries of both the high an
low kinds from a cold, wet swamp to
t dry, gravelly soil, where they hav
o grown taller than in their native spC
$ and produce larger and more abuno
v ant berries. He advises us to set OF
Q young plants, about foot high, in til
Il spring, and then to mulch them for
n year or two, and pillow in some coars
v horse manure occasionally. They al
e slow to start, but after they are starte
IS they grow rapidly, both in bush an
h berry.
IS 1t is too true that farmers and stocl
o. raisers are too slow to profit by ii
m enlightenment which is being she
he upon farm methods by the agricultur
II press. "That's good idea for son
le of these rich ducks with more mon,
ne than brains, but it won't do tor pc
II. man." is what many say. The tin
~ was when thoroughbred and his
" grade farm stock was considered to
ar only for the pleasure of the wealth
a People have learned that the pc
rs man, least of all, can afford to raj
~ scrubs, and it is just so with the 9th
,h countless improvements that a
b. weekly coming to light in rural affai
-" Sheep-raisers may be enabled
:. form some idea of the magnitude
iu' the growing industry in N
w South Wales from the follow
Go figures: In 1885 the number of lam
If shorn in the grease was 4, 1883; t
number washed, 42,5S4, making
total of 4,155,967 lambs shorn. I
re- number of sheep shorn in the gre;